For electronic devices, miniaturization and weight reduction may provide significant advantages such as, for example, improved portability and/or reduced costs for storage, packaging, and/or transportation. However, miniaturization and weight reduction of electronic devices may be hindered by various physical constraints (e.g., physical properties of structural component/enclosure materials) due to various design requirements (e.g., strength and durability requirements of the electronic devices).
In addition to functionality, performance, and durability requirements, aesthetic and tactile characteristics of electronic devices also have become more and more important. For example, buyers/users may expect surfaces (e.g., enclosure surfaces) of electronic devices to be scratch and dent resistant. Further, buyers/users may also expect electronic devices to look good and to have a comfortable, quality feel.
In the prior art, designers of electronic devices may have had difficulties designing electronic device components with the right materials to enable/help electronic devices to satisfy all the strength, weight, size, aesthetic/cosmetic, and tactile requirements and expectations with a generally affordable cost.
For example, materials typically utilized in structural components and/or enclosures of electronic devices may include plastics, such as polycarbonate, nylon, and ABS, which may be associated with lower cost, lighter weight, and a higher variety of visual characteristics (e.g., colors, patterns, etc.), compared with the cost, weight, and appearance of a metal. However, a plastic component may need a relatively large dimension (e.g., thickness) to provide sufficient strength. Further, a plastic component may not be able to satisfactorily resist scratch.
Metals, such as steel, titanium, aluminum, and magnesium, also may be utilized in forming structural components and/or enclosures of electronic devices. Metals may provider higher strength and higher scratch resistance than plastics. However, metals may incur higher material and manufacturing costs. Metals may also significantly add weight to electronic devices. Light metals, such as titanium, aluminum, etc., may be utilized to minimize the weight problem. However, light metals may have a high cost and/or may need an undesirably large dimension to provide sufficient dent resistance and strength, as further discussed with reference to FIG. 1.
FIG. 1 illustrates a partial cross-sectional view of an example prior-art electronic device 100. As illustrated in the example of FIG. 1, electronic device 100 may include an enclosure 110 and a disk drive bezel 120 disposed inside enclosure 110. When a user of electronic device 100 loads optical disks through disk drive bezel 120, a force may be applied to enclosure 110 in a first direction 101, for example, by one or more fingers of the user. The force may then be transmitted to disk drive bezel 120. Enclosure 110 may rely on the support of disk drive bezel 120 to withstand the force, to ensure that enclosure 110 may not be deformed or damaged by the force.
Disk drive bezel 120 may be made of aluminum, a relatively inexpensive light metal, for minimizing the weight of electronic device 300 without incurring a high material cost (associated with employing titanium, for example). In order to provide sufficient strength to support enclosure 110 and to prevent deformation and damage, disk drive bezel 120 may need to have dimensions that are sufficiently large. For example, disk drive bezel 120 may be required to have a sufficiently large thickness T1, along first direction 101. The requirement of thickness T1 may be associated with the amount of aluminum, which contributes to the weight of electronic device 100. The requirement of thickness T1 may also be associated with utilization of space, which is to be shared by various components inside electronic device 100. As a result, the requirement of thickness T1 may hinder the miniaturization and weight reduction of electronic device 100.